Kiss Before the Veil
by speciaux
Summary: Both their eyes seemed to grow darker with the years and the stress and the lack of rest. Their skin was a sickly pale. Their ribs stuck out grotesquely.


**Kiss Before The Veil:We're Getting Old**

Remus seldom removed his trained sight from Sirius, if he could help it. He hadn't expected to ever regret it, either.

.

_It was the first moment they'd had together in a very long time. Both their eyes seemed to grow darker with the years and the stress and the lack of rest. Their skin was a sickly pale. Their ribs stuck out grotesquely. Not that they'd know, for they had hardly seen their own bare forms in ages. _Not to mention, each other's bare forms_, thought Sirius warily._

_Remus was staring at the fireplace. He kept expecting something or someone to jump out at any second, not knowing whether it would be friend or foe. He didn't think the house to be safe any more, though everyone tried to convince him otherwise._

_Sirius kept watching him intently._

_._

Sirius and Bellatrix were the only pair too involved in their fighting to notice Dumbledore's arrival. Remus watched as Bellatrix's red spell missed Sirius, if only by mere inches. Sirius laughed at her. 'Come on, you can do better than that!' he mocked, his voice filling the expansive room.

.

_Remus twitched a bit at Sirius' hand on his shoulder, before realizing it was just him. Sirius nuzzled the ragged place where the collar of his shirt disappears. 'It's been so long...'_

_It seemed to take hours—days; weeks, even—before Remus processed his words. Until, finally, 'It's been so long since what?'_

_Sirius stood up straight, walked around Remus' chair, and straddled his weak lap. 'Since we've been together like this. Since we've been together at all.'_

_'Things are certainly not the way they used to be. We are, after all,under different _circumstances.'

_Sirius couldn't thank him enough for not bringing You-Know-Who into this. Dumbledore himself asked that they take a rest. They worked far to hard, he said. _He_ never seemed to rest. They were needed also._

_Sirius wrapped his arms around Remus. Their bones must've pressed together at their fronts, meat and cloth were far and few in between. 'We're getting old, Remus.'_

_Said man closed his eyes. 'Truly.'_

_Sirius chuckled. 'I'll still love you when we've white hair and no teeth. I always will.' They locked eyes briefly. 'I need you, Remus. I need you now.' He accentuated the remark with a kiss._

_._

Bellatrix aimed again, this time catching Sirius directly across the chest.

.

_'Sirius, we could be called at any moment. We must be ready to assist at any given moment!' He shoved Sirius' face away, almost forcibly._

_Sirius frowned.'Okay.'_

_Remus held up his chin. 'I'm sorry. I meant it not like that. It's just...'_

_'It's fine.' Sirius kissed his cheek, then his other cheek, then his lips again. 'You're right.' _

_Sirius' bony fingers caressed his neck and his face. He kissed him again, harder this time._

_'I love you,' whispered Remus._

_They sat like that for mere seconds before someone's Patronus demanded their attention and that they report to the Ministry of Magic because Harry was in trouble._

_._

The laughter didn't seem to leave Sirius' face, although his eyes widened in shock.

The moments it took Sirius to fall must've gone on forever. His body curved graciously, as he passed the worn veil that hung from the arc...

There hung a look that couldn't decide between fear and surprise on Sirius' face as he disappeared behind the doorway. The veil fluttered for a moment as though blown by wind and then fell back into place.

Remus stood, frozen in the place where Sirius' name never really seemed to leave his throat.

* * *

><p>I don't claim to have written Sirius' death scene. Nor do I claim to have written the Harry Potter series. I'm simply writing this for fun. Sirius' death scene was taken directly from 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' by J.K. Rowling and adjusted slightly so that it was in Remus' perspective. I am not attempting plagiarism or copyright infringement. Please, don't sue me.<p> 


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